The weekend of August 3-5, 2012 marked my seventh year going to Otakuthon. Unlike previous, not only did I made sure to get to the pre-registration/registration line at open time Friday to avoid any possible long line-up issues to stop me from seeing what panels were around during the first two hours of the convention’s Friday part, but I also made sure to arrive to the con itself around opening time on the Saturday and Sunday parts of the event to keep my chances finding of a variety finding panel/screening visiting options to choose from as high as possible.
Panels
The first panel I attended at Otakuthon 2012 was a workshop called “Advanced Cosplay Photography” on the Friday at 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM. Although I normally use a Sony DSC-W350 digital camera to take pictures in general, it was interesting to learn of alternate means of doing cosplay photography.
On the Saturday of Otakuthon 2012, I started the day by visiting a four-hour panel called “Daleks in Montreal: A Doctor Who Discussion”. This panel was split in two2-hour segments: the first one covering the 2005 Doctor Who T.V. series (featuring The Doctor in his 9th to 11th incarnations) so far with brief mentions of its spinoffs The Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood, and the second segment covering the 1963 Doctor Who T.V. series (featuring The Doctor in his first seven incarnations) and the 1996 Doctor Who T.V. movie (featuring the Doctor in his 8th incarnation). During that panel, I had learned something about the 2005 Doctor Who that I never thought I would hear: Steve Moffat tried to ignore all Doctor Who stories from “An Unearthly Child” to “The End of Time” from continuity while working on Doctor Who episodes and specials made after “The End of Time”, which makes me wonder if Matt Smith’s role in the show was suppose to be the 1st Doctor in a rebooted continuity like how Barbera Gordon in canon DC Universe continuity was the second Batgirl of Pre-Crisis Earth-One history and then found herself revised to being the original Batgirl of a rebooted history when New Earth got formed by five universes in Crisis on Infinite Earths. As for Torchwood, the hosts of the panel claimed that the Jack Harkness in Torchwood was a different guy from the one seen in the Doctor Who T.V. series, despite the fact that Torchwood included references to Jack’s familiarity with The Doctor a few times (but I don’t see how that’s possible).
There were two panels I wanted to attend during the Saturday of the convention (“Scott McNeil Q&A” and “Gundam AGE”, but due to finding myself feeling hungry enough to find time for two meals (lunch and dinner), I had to skip those panels. Plus, due to schedule issues, I had to reject my plans to attend the “Avengers Assemble” panel (a panel to discuss Marvel’s The Avengers in all media, including comics) on the same day in order to get to the check out the entire screening of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 The Movie: A Wakening of the Trailblazer since I did not get the chance to buy it on DVD prior to the con and that it maybe a long until DVD prices for the film itself in North America drops while its Region 1 distributor Bandai Entertainment withdrew from brining out new R1 anime DVD releases. Fortunately, I was able to attend the “Avengers Time” panel on the Sunday of the con, and in that, the event was a sketch comedy performance where the panelists played Marvel Universe characters (such as Thor, Iron Man, and the Hulk) with the audiences becoming part of the performance as we asked questions of their latest exploits in Marvel movies.
The last panel I attended on the Saturday of Otakuthon 2012 was in fact a panel to discuss Leiji Matsumoto’s Captain Harlock. Unfortunately due to its time limit, the host of the panel itself and the viewers attending (including myself) did not get to discuss all versions of Harlock’s history (just a few). I felt it could have been longer. However, the host did succeed in introducing Harlock to anime fans not familiar with the mythos by screening premier episodes of four Leijiverse anime series: Space Pirate Captain Harlock (1978), Arcadia of My Youth: Endless Orbit SSX (1982), Queen Emeraldas (1998), and Space Pirate Captain Herlock: Endless Odyssey (2002). When it came to audience input (which was highly encouraged by the panellist according to the Otakuthon 2012 program book), only a few made input with me making the most of it during discussion.
